Destination: Bitch Planet

Criminally Non-Compliant women are shipped from Earth to a prison planet by a society that deems them unfit or too problematic for our world.

No, this is not a description of the Republican party’s ultimate wet dream. It is the new Image Comics title from Pretty Deadly and Captain Marvel scribe, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Bitch Planet, with art from Valentine de Landro, hits shelves on December 10th and pays homage to some of the classic “women in prison” exploitation films of the late 60s and 70s.

Decades before Orange is the New Black became a household name and the darling of Netflix’s streaming media catalog, grindhouse theaters screened films such as Caged Heat, Women in Cages, and The Big Bird Cage as part of double-features or all-night bills. Known for their low budget and explicit content, exploitation films, and the “women in prison” sub genre, have arguable historical importance and may or may not have paved the way for some of the rough-and-tumble female bruisers that we see in our comic books and on television today.

Pam Grier in Roger Corman’s “Women in Cages”.

While most, if not all, of the films from this category are sadly only known for visually catering to sexual fetishism (bondage, S&M, voyeurism), film historians and many feminists argue against this being the only merit to remember. The female characters in these movies range from the brutal to the victimized and are often imprisoned falsely or for non-violent crimes by a patriarchal society… the same sort of society that would sooner force a woman to spend her waking hours in a kitchen rather than earning equal pay for work.

Nine times out of ten, the films end with the imprisoned women powerfully uprising to attain justice for the sadistic abuse they endured and achieve freedom at any cost. By the time the credits roll, the women are empowered and their captors eliminated.

Already receiving glowing reviews, Bitch Planet‘s arrival couldn’t have been timed better. With women constantly on the proverbial chopping block with political rulings such as the infamous “Hobby Lobby” decision, books like Kelly Sue’s newest endeavor and the now-cult-status-level films that preceded it will always be important to not only give a proverbial middle finger to patriarchal society, but to prove that women will never back down… even when physically or metaphorically caged.